‘We really want the Philippines
back on the court’–Fiba Asia

By Jun Lomibao
Editor

DOHA—Asian Games basketball will never be the same without a Philippine team, especially in this country with 80,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who easily are 10 percent of Qatar’s entire population.
           
“We really want you back,” Dato’ Yeoh Choo Hock of Malaysia, secretary-general of Fiba Asia, told Philippine officials.
           
With the Philippines around, according to Yeoh, there will be a great difference both in excitement because of a rabid Filipino crowd that would automatically translate to a killing at the tills.
           
Basketball has commenced days before the December 1 opening ceremonies, but it was observed that even with China and Wang Zhizhi plus Korea and Japan around, the fans have not been coming in.
           
Even International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge, who is in these Asian Games along with a number of international sports leaders, showed his concern about Philippine basketball.
           
“I hope you can solve it,” Rogge reportedly told Philippine Olympic Committee leaders. The IOC head even assured POC officials he would help in solving the crisis by making his way through Fiba.
           
“Everybody wants the Philippines in basketball, not only Filipinos here, but also the leaders of the IOC and the Fiba,” said Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella.
           
The resolution of the basketball crisis back home is at a standstill basically because pride has set in among the so-called stakeholders, according to Puentevella, who is also president of the RP weightlifting federation.
           
“I hope Senator Estrada and Mr. Pangilinan can come together and thresh things out,” he said.
           
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is president of the Basketball Association of the Philippines, which enjoys Fiba recognition despite the suspension slapped on the country, while Manny Pangilinan is being groomed to head the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas.
           
A resolution of the crisis is expected to go back to square one after the Asian Games are over, Puentevella said.
           
The suspension has prevented the Philippines from participating in three major international basketball competitions the past year. These are the 23rd SEA Games the country hosted exactly a year ago, the Fiba Asia championship last August in Japan and these 15th Asian Games.